Cite as: 526 U. S. 172 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Tribe, 473 U. S., at 765, n. 16. We have repeatedly reaffirmed state authority to impose reasonable and necessary nondiscriminatory regulations on Indian hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in the interest of conservation. See Puyallup Tribe v. Department of Game of Wash., 391 U. S. 392, 398 (1968); Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Assn., 443 U. S., at 682; Antoine v. Washington, supra, at 207-208. This "conservation necessity" standard accommodates both the State's interest in management of its natural resources and the Chippewa's federally guaranteed treaty rights. Thus, because treaty rights are reconcilable with state sovereignty over natural resources, statehood by itself is insufficient to extinguish Indian treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on land within state boundaries.7
We do not understand Justice Thomas to disagree with this fundamental conclusion. Race Horse rested on the premise that treaty rights are irreconcilable with state sovereignty. It is this conclusion—the conclusion undergirding the Race Horse Court's equal footing holding—that we have consistently rejected over the years. Justice Thomas' only disagreement is as to the scope of state regulatory authority. His disagreement is premised on a purported distinction between "rights" and "privileges." This Court has never used a distinction between rights and privileges
7 The Chief Justice asserts that our criticism of Race Horse is inappropriate given our recent "reaffirm[ation]" of that case in Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife v. Klamath Tribe, 473 U. S. 753 (1985). Post, at 219. Although we cited Race Horse in Klamath, we did not in so doing reaffirm the equal footing doctrine as a bar to the continuation of Indian treaty-based usufructuary rights. Klamath did not involve the equal footing doctrine. Rather, we cited Race Horse for the second part of its holding, discussed in the text, infra, at 206-208. See 473 U. S., at 773, n. 23. In any event, the Race Horse Court's reliance on the equal footing doctrine to terminate Indian treaty rights rested on foundations that were rejected by this Court within nine years of that decision. See United States v. Winans, 198 U. S. 371, 382-384 (1905).
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